Socioeconomic Disadvantage: The Australian Context
Curriculum experiences at school have the potential to disafvantage children, in particular, those from disadvantaged backgrounds (Ewing, 2013. p. 73). John Graham (2012) explains in his editorial titled 'The Reproduction of Disadvantage ' that: "One important measure of the equity of a schooling systemis the impact of socioeconomic status background factorson student outcomes" (p. 5). Data from the Oragnisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicates that Australia is a country with high quality but very low equity, this means students from disadvantaged backgrounds are consistently achieving poorer educational outcomes than their peers (Graham, 2012. p. 5).
Where are we right now: PISA 2009
The 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) testing program for 15-year-old students
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p. 76). This impact is usually greater on particular groups - for example, children in rural areas, children of the long term unemployed, refugees, and children with special physical and emotional needs (Ewing, 2013. p. 76). It is important for educators to understand that some assumptions of particular groups of people such as: poor people brought it upon themselves and poor people are less intellectually advantaged than their middle and upper class counterparts (Ewing, 2013. p. 76).
Poor purchasing power in low income families decrease the lifestyle choices that low income families can make and choices about education is no exception (Ewing, 2013. p. 84). There has been numerous funding cuts to public schooling over the last fifteen years which, in turn, decrease the educational quality of a public schooling education (Ewing, 2013. p. 84). Schools that are in remote areas of Australia are likely to have the most inexperienced teachers that lack experienced mentors (Ewing, 2013. p. 84).
Furthermore, Chapter 15 begins to explain educational inequality. In the United States, education is available but not to every child in the same way. Different social-classes means different schools, instructions, criteria, rates, and times. In addition to class differences, races and ethnics unfortunately play a role in educational achievement. For example, in general, African Americans, Latino/a’s, and Native Americans usually do worse in school than white or Asian American students
Consequently, this means all types virtual backpacks, cultural capital, socioeconomic status and other factors need to be valued. Part of value adding is getting the community involved. A multicultural café event was set up at a small school in Sydney that has a high socioeconomic status and a small amount of students with a language background other than English (LBOTE), this was woven into the curriculum over two terms (Ferfolja, 2015). What they found was that the students participated enthusiastically, however very few parents of the LBOTE students attended and some of the cafés were not accurate. As education changes in line with social justice when curriculum, pedagogy and assessment is altered there can be unfavorable effects too. Australia had schemes to promote the education outcomes of girls and consequently these changes in curriculum and the assessment process have been viewed as too successful by some and policy has consequently shifted to boys educational outcomes (Marks, 2009). Curriculum changes can be a long process, however necessary as some children find the curriculum problematic. The Australian curriculum can be seen as linguistically foreign, culturally insensitive or inappropriate for Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) children who are in school (Kenyon, Sercombe, Black, & Lhuede, 2001). As indigenous children are a part of the least privileged and significantly disadvantaged group in Australia (C. Mills & Gale, 2010), social justice is failing educating those students. The Australia curriculum, which has been accessible since 2010, declares that it is committed to a curriculum that promotes excellence and equity in education in addition to teachers using the curriculum to assist in physical, social and aesthetic needs of all students amongst other factors (Australian Curriculum,
There is a common, underlying perception that students from particular cultural and linguistic backgrounds – what is generally referred to as ethnicity - have a predisposition towards educational success in Australian schools (Watkins, 2013). Students from Anglo backgrounds, for example, are often seen as having a cultural advantage whilst others, such as Middle Eastern students, are perceived as culturally prone to underachievement. These claims confine ethnicity to fixed and bound stereotypes, and see educational achievement as a result of the inherent qualities of these groups (Watkins, 2013). However, ethnicity cannot be held solely responsible for the inequalities in Australian education. A densely interwoven fabric of socio-cultural factors, for instance, geographical location and socioeconomic status, is evident in the disparities between students' academic achievements. It is within fabric that it can be established that students from minority groups are educationally disadvantaged due to their ethnicities, geographical locations and socioeconomic statuses, incidentally influencing their chances of educational success in Australian schools (Groundwater-Smith, 2009).
Students in poverty tend to obtain low grades, have little academic achievement, and often misbehave. Many often drop out before graduating high school. Students ages sixteen through twenty-four are up to seven times more likely to drop out. A study published in Nature Neuroscience discovered “a link between physical brain development and poverty level. In a study of eleven hundred children, adolescence and adults from around the US, researchers found significant differences in the brains of children from the lowest income bracket in comparison to those in the highest. Families who lived on less than twenty-five thousand dollars a year had as much as 6% less surface area in their brain in areas like language and decision making than families who made more than one hundred and fifty dollars a year.” This may support why many students in poverty tend to do worse in school over middle class students. Employers usually lean toward more educated workers, leaving the poor at a serious disadvantage when it comes to work Children growing in poverty regularly have families of their own poverty. Some workplaces, manufacturing jobs have replaced their human labor with machinery and technology, which leaves many potential jobs out of the hands of people hungry for work. Having a weak education leaves them unskilled, resulting poor and low paying occupations. This creates a long lasting loop of poverty, a loop which is hard to escape. They
Everyone knows about the various stereotypes and social stigmas that come with socioeconomic status whether they will choose to admit it or not. Society has come to assume that a child who comes from a family of low socioeconomic status, that they will not do as well as a child who comes from a family of a greater socioeconomic status. Unfortunately these assumptions are so ingrained in our brains that we start to follow the self-fulfilling prophecy. When a child from a noticeably low socioeconomic status walks into a classroom, it is not uncommon for the teacher to automatically assume that the child will not perform well in class, and in turn either grades the child more harshly or does not give the child as much attention as the other children from high socioeconomic status families. Do these children not perform well in class because of the self-fulfilling prophecy or is there something that happens during the critical period that causes the child to fall behind?
Socioeconomic disadvantage within the Australian schooling system is rife. Socioeconomic status (SES) is an economic and sociological combined total measure of an individuals’ access to material and social resources as well as their ability to participate in society. (ABS, 2006).
Those who are at risk tend to be minorty groups. This can be in part due to lower social
Have you noticed that a lot of Americans most disadvantaged children grow up without the skills they need to thrive in the twenty-first century? Have you ever wondered how NYC High School scholars judge each other? Whether in educational attainment between income groups or racial/ethnic groups, inequality still persists. In New York City, the nation’s largest school system, on average student outcomes and their opportunity to learn are more determined by social class and family backgrounds. Think of your own experiences when you were in high school? We always hear people speak about others because of the way they dress, where they live, and who their parents are. Also some are treated differently and have greater opportunities than others. For example, children growing up in low-income neighbors are much more likely to experience repeated stress from violence crime that may cause them to be capable for development. On the other hand, high income in the United States has increased the importance of how external environment factors impact students and schools. What is a good education to you? A good education is the key foundation and the need for every child to succeed in the world today, with the fast growing markets and a lot of competition. A lot don’t understand and need to learn what it takes to compete with other individuals and make a decent living. However, not every child has been receiving a fair and equal education throughout all of society and education inequality has become a major issue. Many of the children living in low-income and middle-income families are not receiving an equal type or quality of education as those who live in high-income families.
Race and wealth play a significant role in the education of children. Studies show disproportionate reading and math levels of students of color vs white students. Studies have also shown disproportionate behavior consequences and suspensions. Students coming from wealthier families receive more opportunities. Students from less well-off families oftentimes do not get those opportunities.
Many people believe that “having an economy that places a greater value on skills and education is a good thing” and that is the thing that is needed to improve people’s lives and futures (Baicker, Lazear). If what our economy is trying to do a good thing they why are so many students still suffering? The main issues are the low-income education that many students have. Many schools are getting money from the government but that is not enough to pay for everything students need. Educational standards have continued to increase throughout the years but that does not help the students who are unable to pay for the better education. These students who cannot pay for the better education are stuck barely getting by with a low education. A low-education can affect many areas of regular schooling. The students who are at low-income schools do not know what type of disadvantage they have compared to other students across the country. These students believe that they are getting the best education, but there are many students who are getting a better education at a school that has the funds to pay for everything their students need. Low-income students are suffering due to the environment they are in at school and they continue to suffer throughout their life due to it. These students will continue to suffer unless something is done about the low-income schools and improve them for the future. Improvement has to come from all areas, not just one aspect of schooling but from all aspects. Although education has improved along with technology many low-income students still suffer from the vast inequalities. These inequalities will take many years to find a way to fix and even more years to actually fix, until this happens the students will...
About 40 percent of Australia’s poorest 19 year olds are not completing school, compared to the 10 percent of the wealthier. Poor students are believed to miss a month more of school than the wealthy each year. Students who are Indigenous, poor, and live in remote areas are falling behind their peers at major stages of their schooling.
It can be argued that the academic performance of children has nothing to do with their socioeconomic status, because there have been many cases of children from very poor families who have excelled greatly in academics (APA, 2017). Furthermore, many predominantly high-end schools have posted poor results when compared to school with poorer backgrounds. This is despite the fact children from lower socioeconomic classes do not have access to the best forms of learning materials. The high performance of children from poor backgrounds is often attributed to the fact that they are not preoccupied with many activities which would otherwise hinder them from concentrating on their studies (Sacerdote, 2002). Therefore, some believe it is false to say that poor performance is associated with children who come from low socioeconomic classes. Rather, they believe academic achievement is genetic (Sacerdote, 2002).
Social institutions are an important element in the structure of human societies. They provide a structure for behavior in a particular part of social life. The five major social institutions in large societies are family, education, religion, politics, and economics. While each institution does deal with a different aspect of life, they are interrelated and intersect often in the course of daily life. For example, for schools to be able to exist they rely on funding from the government. This is an intersection between politics and education. Social institutions affect individual lives through other aspects of society such as culture, socialization, social stratification, and deviance. This paper will focus on the social institution of education, and how it affects individual lives through socialization, deviance, and social stratification.
Education in our country is a social problem, because millions of poor children are affected by the deplorable and decaying conditions that the buildings where they attend are. Furthermore, a lot of the personnel assigned to teach academics are not qualified to do so. The children that live in a household where the conditions are bellow poverty level, do not received the attention of parents or incentives to reach for higher education. Logically they end up being what they see most of the time, which is criminals. Why is it that we have these conditions in our Country? Do we have any solution to solve the problem? But if we do not live among the poor class, does it affect us?
Traditional schooling has both advantages and disadvantages to its approach. Traditional schools are open to the public, as for they cannot decline enrollment of any student, as stated by the U.S Department of Justice “All children in the United States are entitled to equal access to a basic public elementary and secondary education regardless of their actual or perceived race, color, national origin, citizenship, immigration status, or the status of their parents/guardians.” (www.justice.gov) School districts that deny a student 's access into their school or has policies set in place for students of parents who may be undocumented or not a U.S citizen would be violating a federal law. Any child living in the United States can attend any public school he/she desires regardless of their race, color, nationality, their status or parental status.